Tuesday, March 30, 2010

While most people are at the beach for spring break, our family is spending time in Montana!

There were goodies waiting for me to open!!

This beautiful gift was wrapped and waiting in the car for me to open. My friend Lauren left it for my husband and me me on her last trip out here. Isn't it lovely?!?

These beautiful knives are a Christmas present that had delivery issues ;-)) I think they arrived in late January or early February. They are definitely worth the wait. I absolutely love them!!! Thanks Mom and Ron! Because of the delay, I scored a gift certificate from Bridger Kitchens for a cooking class. Can't wait for summer to see what they'll have cooking!!

Another Christmas present (from myself) that didn't arrive on time. I love the SewEzi table I have at home, that I ordered one for Montana. I really love this table, and it is great for small spaces. I hope to use it to make something for Sew and Tell Friday.

I brought this Liberated Amish quilt top with me. I played hooky from skiing and did a little hand quilting...just didn't take any pictures. Even though it is destined for Montana, don't think it will be finished while I am here this trip.

Soon I will pick up my oldest at the airport which is conveniently located near a quilt shop. Think I might just stop by and say hi ;-)

Monday, March 29, 2010

Do blogs ever show reruns? I have never seen one, but I don't see why not. Oprah has reruns of her show; Larry King does it; Law & Order Criminal Intent does too.

As with TV reruns, it shouldn't happen too often. But sometimes, TV reruns are great for catching up on a favorite series or for highlighting important events in previous seasons.

Well, I am "showing" a rerun of a previous post. It was when I was first blogging, so it will probably be new to most of you anyway. Following is the blog post originally titled "Family Reunion".

I am taking a break from quilting and blogging until Monday. I am heading to our annual family reunion in Mississippi today. The whole family is excited, as even though it is an annual event, we have had to miss the last two years. We usually are regular attendees. I am thrilled to hear that the weather forecast is sunny with highs in the low 60's and lows in the low 40's. Ready to escape this heat and humidity!!

While we are this topic, I have to share with you the second quilt I made. This was made for my Granny Harper's 90th birthday. After assembling the quilt top, I hand stitched photos from past family reunions that I had printed onto photo fabric. (You know, there are family reunions and then THERE ARE FAMILY REUNIONS. Ours is the latter. I won't go on and on about it, but suffice it to say that this reunion is totally organized, standing date on the calendar and cabins booked two years in advance. My granny lived for these reunions. She's the true family matriarch. I only mention this to give importance to the pictures from these past reunions.) As I do most things, this was a last minute brain storm idea so I did not have time for family members to sign blocks or write messages on blocks or any other brilliant idea that came to mind. So I had everyone email messages to me for my grandmother, and I typed them on pretty paper using pretty colors and fonts. I made them into cards with pictures of each of them with my grandmother on the front of the card and their message on the inside. I sewed a big pocket onto the back of the quilt with a button for closing and placed all the cards in the pocket. After she opened and read all the cards, I had her put them in a special place so that she could then use the quilt as a quilt and not have the pocket bulging.

My Granny Harper loved it!!! Of course, she would have loved anything given to her, but I could tell she was really proud of this quilt. She was only able to enjoy the quilt for a short time before she passed away suddenly. I was so touched when my Dad had the quilt on display at her funeral and so many of her friends made a special point to tell me how much she loved that quilt and how she would bring it to her Ladies Circle and tell them that her granddaughter in Florida made it for her.

My Dad gave the quilt back to me, and it sits on the child's antique rocker that was my grandmother's grandmother's rocker. How I treasure both!! The photographs are a little faded due to all the washings....this quilt is definitely used!!! Excuse my travel down memory lane. I got a little carried away (lucky for you, I actually deleted several paragraphs of my ramblings). Have an amazing weekend!! See you on Monday!!

This is the five year anniversary of my Granny's passing. Love you Granny!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Are y'all getting tired of seeing this quilt yet? The Feeling Groovy quilt top is finally complete!

The quilt would not stay still for a picture....reminds me of when my kids were little ;-)

While taking this picture, the wind almost blew it into the pool!! That would not have been a good thing. That's all I need... for the chlorine to bleach out the batiks!!

Here's one last shot.

I'm taking a break from this quilt before the quilting part. My kids are on spring break so not sure how much sewing will get done. I'll have about five days after the break to quilt this before the auction. Still trying to decide on how to do that.

Click on the Sew and Tell button to see all the creativity for the week.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Preparing for an open house is for the birds. For one thing, I could really use my design wall right now, but like a good girl, I put it away for those non quilters who may look at my house.

So instead of this big area to work with....

....I have this little area.

For another thing, I haven't found time to read my favorite blogs, leave comments, browse Flickr, catch up on Facebook, keep up with the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along, etc. because again I am being a good girl and instead am cleaning out closets, organizing book shelves, replacing pillow cushions and curtains, making trips to Goodwill, etc.

I blame lack of adequate design space for all the ripping and resewing going on with this Feeling Groovy quilt. I either keep reading my pattern upside down or confuse the top and the bottom of this quilt! Slow going, but hopefully I will have a finished top to show on Friday. Stay tuned!

With all the starts and stops on the Groovy quilt, I used the Leaders & Enders method to make these wonky blocks. It is amazing how fast these little pieces can be made into something this way.

Last but not least, these arrived in the mail today! I just love them. I ordered them from Anna at Lilla Lotta whose link I discovered from Rita. I am thinking of christening them by putting one on the back of the Feeling Groovy quilt. What is the label etiquette for charity/auction quilts? Anybody know?

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

On the first beautiful spring day we've enjoyed around here, the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild met for its first Sew Day! Even though the day was spent inside, we had big picture windows letting in the sun and gorgeous colorful quilts to remind us spring is here!

This is Beth's beautiful Bargello quilt. Her seams are perfect and lay so flat!

This is another quilt Beth is working on for her daughter's school auction. Can you see the children's art work? Gorgeous!

This is Cara's quilt for her soon-to-be-born baby girl! Love those birds and the pinks and browns!

Hope made this fun Easter table runner for her mom. The fabrics are all way cool batiks she had left over from another quilt project. Before she left for the day, she had added more eggs and a really cute chick and did most of the quilting. Too cute!

Jodie worked on her quilt using the Verna squares from Moda's sampler pack. Don't you just love these soft chocolate browns mixed with the Verna?!?!

We were all in awe of Kathryn's pink quilt of houses! This picture really doesn't do justice to the beautiful fabrics and the applique and quilting. I have a feeling a few of us may try to make one of these ourselves. So fun and gorgeous!

Michele used National Quilt Day to finish her waverunner! I love these colors she chose, and the layout is too fun. Michele also trimmed all her black and white flying geese blocks and did some hand quilting.

Monday, March 22, 2010

I have heard the expression "listening to the quilt" and now know what that means.

In choosing the background fabric for my Peace quilt, I went in a totally different direction.

I took about ten of my pinwheels with me to the Sewing Studio and tried different batiks. My original thought was a lighter background, but the pinwheels seemed to disappear. When I put them against this dark purple batik, the pinwheels seemed to pop. The tie dye fabric you see is for the backing, and that other purple is for the binding. I felt better about the decision by having others in the LQS agree.

I laid out the pinwheel blocks once again to determine placement. It looks much bigger in person than it does on a piece of graph paper!

I labeled the 59 pinwheel blocks with a Column letter and Row number consistent with the graph paper drawing. I am so glad I did as I worked on this with our quilt guild's Sew Day. By the time I packed everything up and unloaded it, I would not have had a clue which block went where if they had not been labeled. Even then, the math was a @*$^#!

I started with the center column and worked my way out. Above are Columns #5-10 out of 15 total columns and 15 rows.

Here is a picture taken at our Sew Day when five columns had been completed. You can almost see the beginnings of a peace sign taking shape!

After hearing several of you refer to my Peace quilt as groovy, I have decided to change the name to Feeling Groovy.

How did you celebrate National Quilt Day? Tomorrow, I will share pictures from our guild's celebration of this all important holiday!

I love it that one word can convey so many wonderful sentiments! I made this mini for my friend Hope who used to live in Hawaii and still says Mahalo on her answering machine greeting. (Actually, I believe it is her husband's voice on the machine.)

I'm taking this to Hope and Marty this evening as they have graciously invited my husband and I (and Ally) to join them for Game Night, and I thought this would be a nice host/hostess gift. ...my way of saying thank you Mahalo to Hope for putting up with the drama that is my life, continuing to invite me over even when I constantly say no, joining me in my crazy quilting obsession being such a good friend.

(I hope she is too busy preparing for the evening to read my blog today.)

I stitched the Mahalo while in the doctor's waiting room. I used some of my Cosmo threads leftover from the Embroidery Color Wheel.

I am glad our quilt guild is having a binding demonstration at our next meeting!

Do you like my hanger? Hope and I are all about recycling;-)

Did you notice the Bucket List tab below my header? I just added "learn free motion quilting" to that!

Did you know tomorrow is National Quilt Day? Our quilt guild is having their first Sew Day on the same day. I hope to select the background fabric for my peace quilt, get some of those blocks made and even piece some of the peace sign on Saturday. If so, I'll share the pictures with you Monday.

Don't neglect the other Sew and Tell Friday posts. Click on the sidebar button to see the list.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

I am pleasantly surprised at how much progress I've made on those Peace pinwheels.

More chain piecing

and my pinwheels are finished!

Now I need help deciding on the background color. Ignore the layout of the pinwheels. I just randomly placed them on different fabrics to audition backgrounds. Several of you recommended gray which is in the above picture.

Above, the blocks are placed on a white background.

I only had a small piece of this blue batik.

Finally, here is a picture with some blocks placed on a gray batik.

I got tired of this experiment after four background fabrics. What do you think? Your suggestion doesn't have to be one of the above choices. Also, regardless of color, do you think I should go with a solid background or a batik background? I am hoping to decide and buy the background fabric today or tomorrow so that I can work on the background squares Saturday at our guild's Sew Day.

Thanks for your help again! What would I do without you? I guess I'd have to make a decision all by myself. That's no fun.